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He looked at his partner, then back at me, shaking his head. “No movement whatsoever. I assume the storm kept them from heading outside.”

I nodded, but his words didn’t comfort me. The only thing that would was seeing River and Goldie safe. I ran across the lawn, practically jumping onto the porch and going to the door. It was locked, which brought me a bit of relief, and I fished my keys out of my pocket, fumbling with them as adrenaline coursed through my body.

“Here,” Oliver mumbled, taking the keys from my hand and unlocking the door for me. “I’ve got it.” He was as calm as ever, but I could see the tension in his jaw, giving his own anxiety away.

He opened the door and started to go in before freezing in the doorway. He took a deep breath and looked over his shoulder. “Go grab the officers.”

My eyes went wide, and I pushed past him with a strength I didn’t know I had. Go get the officers, my ass—my family was in this house. He didn’t put up much resistance as I pushed past, and I saw what had caused his worry. Through the open kitchen door, I saw the shattered back door. Glass littered the floor, the tiles soaked from what I assumed was the earlier rain—which was hours ago…

No.

“River!” I screamed into the house, running first into the kitchen. My vision tunneled, my mind only able to focus on finding my son and the love of my life. “Marigold!”

There was no answer—only the sound of Oliver yelling to the officers parked at the front of the house. Or maybe yelling at them. I didn’t care. Nothing mattered at the moment. Nothing but them.

“River!” I yelled again when I saw the empty kitchen, and ran to his room. The door was ajar, and the room was ransacked. There was torn paper on every surface, his mattress half on the floor, pillows cut open. I heard a scratching noise, and my gaze whipped around, trying to find the source. It almost sounded like it was coming from the ceiling. “River!” My voice cracked in utter desperation.

A soft cry sounded, and it was definitely coming from the ceiling. Was he in the attic? I rushed across the room, reaching above me to the attic door, pushing it open and to the side. “River, are you up there?”

Finally, after only a couple of seconds that felt like a lifetime, two tear-filled green eyes peeked over the edge. His cheeks were wet, his mouth trembling as if he had been crying for hours. “Daddy?”

“Oh my God,” I muttered, reaching my hands up into the attic as he climbed out and practically fell into my arms. I held him tight to my chest, his arms clinging to my neck. “What happened? Why were you up there?”

He cried into my neck as Oliver came running into the room, his gaze turning livid at the state of River’s room. He didn't just understand the fury lit within me at my son being in danger and his safe place desecrated; Oliver shared my fury. “Is he okay?”

I pulled River back, crouching down to set him on his feet. His arms were wrapped tightly around his alligator, his lip trembling, but my incredibly brave boy stood upright as I scanned him for any injuries. “Are you hurt?”

He shook his head and walked back into my chest. I wrapped my arms around him and stood, ready to search the rest of my house for Goldie. Oliver stopped me, a hand on my shoulder. “She’s not here. I checked everywhere. There are muddy footprints going out the back door. Bare footprints, around her size.”

My eyes went wide. “What the hell happened?”

The two officers came running into the house, and the only thing keeping me from throttling them was my son in my arms. They both stopped short as Oliver and I stared them down. Oliver and I weren’t intimidating; we never had been. We had been raised to be kind, gentle, and loving. But right now, based on the officers' faces, we were fucking terrifying.

“Your whole fucking reason for being here is missing!” I growled. “Someone broke into my home and took her, and you saw nothing? Absolutely nothing?”

One shook his head, taking a step back. “We’ll call in backup. We'll find her, sir. I promise you.”

They had no leads. No fucking leads again.

In the hour since I had found River in the ceiling, they had found nothing in my house. Oliver, River, and I were promptly kicked out of my home to prevent us from contaminating the crime scene, but from the sounds of it, there was nothing to contaminate. While the cops had called in backup, we had called our own.

Jackie and Fai were both screaming at separate officers, demanding action, a plan, absolutely anything to find Goldie. Jackie’s husband was back at their house with his own set of officers, seeing if they could find where Silas had gone. He, too, had dropped off the face of the planet, and it was too much to write off as a coincidence. Theo was talking with Oliver as River and I sat at the back of an ambulance. The paramedics confirmed that he had sustained no injuries, but it didn’t assuage my fear. He was still wrapped in my arms, his arms still clutched tightly around his alligator. He had even refused to let it go while they were examining him.

He hadn’t spoken yet, still processing it all. Probably traumatized, though I wasn’t sure from what. I didn’t know what he had seen.

“Daddy,” he whispered softly.

I looked at him in surprise. “What’s up, little man?” I asked, trying to sound casual, but I heard the crack in my voice. I didn’t want to scare him with my tone, my anger, or the raging fear in my soul. We still didn’t know how he had ended up in the attic, how long he had been there, or what the hell had happened in my house.

He looked around us tentatively and leaned in. “Goldie Girl told me to be quiet as a mouse. Should I still be quiet?”

Theo and Oliver must have heard him, as they turned to us and closed the distance so they could hear him, too.

I shook my head. “You did so good listening to her, but you’re safe now. You can talk now. Can you tell me what happened?”

He thought hard for a moment before shaking his head.

“Because you don’t want to, or you don’t know?” Theo asked softly.